Some say Couric's too chipper to hold anchor job

others say no one is watching anyway

In bygone days, the position of anchor on a weeknight television newscast was one of stately, somber, gray-haired eminence. The voice of authority and stability. The elder statesman--emphasis "man"--providing calm amid the chaos of daily events.

But as Katie Couric prepares to ascend to one throne of the broadcast TV world--on Wednesday, she was named anchor and managing editor of "CBS Evening News"--the legs of that chair are being sawn off right out from under her. Blogs, the fragmentation of delivery sources, the thousand-channel universe: Just what constitutes cultural authority in the contemporary world? And can Couric, long the twinkly eyed host of NBC's "Today" show, embody it?

And even if she does, will it matter?

"A woman can bring gravitas to a news broadcast, absolutely. I don't think Katie Couric can. But I'm not sure she has to, in this case," says Steve Safran. "I'm not sure it's relevant, given the changes in TV news."

Safran, managing editor of the broadcast industry Web site lostremote.com and digital media director at the Boston-based New England Cable News, admits that the word "gravitas"--an authoritative dignity--also has an implied meaning. "It's a code word in many traditional broadcast journalism circles for `old white men.' And there are still plenty of people who are reluctant to let that go. But it's simply less important than it was." Because, Safran believes, the broadcast TV news business faces a brutally simple choice: Change or die.

Still, the gravitas question emerged when word first spread that Couric might leave "Today" after 15 years and become the first woman named solo anchor of a network TV newscast.

In a time of national emergency, some have mused, don't Americans naturally gravitate to gravitas--to a stone-faced older man with a baritone voice and the illusion of control over cascading events? Isn't Couric--with her cheerful demeanor and chipper smile--an unlikely source of steadiness and wisdom?

Norma Green, head of Columbia College Chicago's graduate journalism program, says, "The story was always framed one way--Is she `worthy' of carrying on the line of succession from [Walter] Cronkite to [Dan] Rather? There's been a lot of speculation--but it's about gender, not capability."

Green, though, joins Safran in wondering about the point of it all. "Are they [anchors] the ultimate gatekeepers anymore? I don't know."

Indeed, the Big Three networks--ABC, CBS and NBC--have been sloughing off viewers for years, according to Nielsen Media Research. Over the past 3 1/2 decades, the percentage of America's TV sets tuned to those familiar weeknight newscasts dropped from 75 to 37 percent. And that's not the only bad news for the networks.

"The average age of the evening network news audience [member] is in the early 60s right now," Safran says.

And that's the reason network newscasts are commonly referred to as dinosaurs, despite the fact that their audience still far exceeds that of cable news shows. The dinosaur metaphor is apt, says Judith Cramer, associate professor of mass communication, journalism and film studies at St. John's University. "They're going by the wayside," she declares. "There are so many reasons why--24-hour cable news channels, the fact that people are getting their information in so many different ways. The unofficial rules that held for years don't seem to apply any longer."

Yet it's that very slow-motion crisis, Cramer adds, that probably persuaded the network to take a chance and hire Couric as the first solo female anchor for a network newscast. As the saying goes: Desperate times call for desperate measures.

That was plainly the message sent by CBS Chairman Les Moonves in 2005, after Rather's resignation. "It's going to be a very different show than the show that's there now," he pledged.

The gravitas issue as it relates to Couric is a bit ironic because she has solid journalistic credentials. She began her NBC News career as a Pentagon reporter and has covered wars and grilled presidents.

"She's smart, she's experienced, she has hard-news experience," says Lillian Williams, director of Columbia College's broadcast journalism program and a former print and broadcast reporter. "You have to look at her track record."

And Couric's not alone, says Mary Ann Childers, newscaster at WBBM-Ch. 2. "There are women with gravitas. Diane Sawyer has it. Barbara Walters has it. What are we really talking about? Depth of experience, putting in the miles, about having perspective and the ability to keep your head when everybody else is losing theirs."

But what about all those years giggling over celebrities and wearing funny hats on "Today"?

"You match your demeanor to the job," says Kathy Brock, anchor at WLS-Ch. 7. "She had the right demeanor for the morning job, and she could do both light and heavy with ease. ... If Dan Rather had done the morning show, he wouldn't have had the same serious demeanor as he had at night either."